THE FARMEii'S MAGAZINE, 



269 



apart than 12 or 14 inclief, but here are nearly as fine crops 

 from rows of fully twice that distance. 



I am, Mr. Editor, pleased to give this account, because 

 thoughtless men, aye, landlords as much as tenants, run 

 down these " garden farmers," as they term them, and 

 ftallop past their farms holding their eyes to the ground, as 

 if they feared to catch an infection; but although it is now 

 five weeks since I last saw those farms, yet I will stake the 

 lirodnce against any thick-seeders in that neighbourhood. 



But, Mr. Editor, not to (|uite weary you further at this 

 time, if you will publish what 1 have already written, I 

 will write again, and show you still further why I am an 

 advocate of— shall I write ? — rational seeding. 

 I am, sir, your obedient servant. 



Parsonage, Wix, July ]3(/i, 1857. Geo. Wilkins. 



P.S. Since writing the foregoing I have again visited 

 snnio of the crops of thin-seeders, and though but few of 

 tiiem cultivate their lands as lands ought to be cultivated, 

 yet everywhere thin-seeding has succeeded. Mr. Sheriff 

 Mecbi's crops, who is cornparativelj' a thin-seeder, are ex- 

 cellent, Messrs. Hardys' splendid, and others are nearly as 

 good; Mr. Bentall's is not quite up to the mark, as the 

 rows were too widely asunder, being \o inches, and there 

 was too much seed put into a row, but still the crop is 

 good. But not to bo too tedious to-day, I will give a more 

 detailed account another week, and will describe the crops 

 of several other thin-seeders at the same time. 



Geo, Wilkins. ' 



ON THE CAUSES- OF THE BAD RETURN OF WHEAT IN 1856. 



[translated from the FRENCH JOURNAL OF PRACTIC.VL AGRICULTURE.] 



It is said that agriculture is the first of arts. That 

 is true, if we mean by it that it is the most ancient and 

 most necessary ; but in the perfection of the processes 

 of operations it assuredly does not occupy so distin- 

 guished a rank. 



The blacksmith rarely burns his iron ; nor does the 

 baker wait the carbonization of his bread before he 

 draws it from the oven. Both attend to the action of 

 the beat, to see that it receives only the necessary 

 degree ; but ths husbandman troubles himself little 

 about the action of the sun, and allows his wheat to be 

 roasted in the field with the most perfect indifference, 

 and the result is an enormous loss, dearness of the 

 articles of subsistence, and the diminution of the public 

 property reduced by the purchase of foreign wheat. 

 The evil is now without remedy as to the past, and I am 

 speaking only by v;ay of caution for the future. 



The harvest of 18.')6 has yielded ranch grain in 

 the departments of the north-east of France ; but 

 the greater part of it is small and thin. It re- 

 quires an enormous quantity of it to fill the mea- 

 sure, so that the return by the sbeaf, which is reckoned 

 by the hectolitre, is very weak. The hundred sheaves, 

 TS'hioh yield in a good year four to five hectolitres, have 

 produced that year only two or three ; and there is 

 therefore a large deficiency. We do not anticipate any 

 inconvenience from it, because this deficiency may be 

 covered by importations of wheat from Germany, which 

 comes in gicat cjuantity. 



If the gi-ains of the last harvest are small and thin, it 

 is because the reaping of the wheat was effected loo 

 slowly. In commencing harvest the husbandman always 

 waits till the stalk and the ear are dry and brittle, whilst 

 he should be careful, like the baker at his oven, to 

 withdraw his sheaves in proper time from the scorching 

 action of the sun. 



It is generally believed that if the period of flowering 

 has passed well, he has nothing to do but to wait the 

 maturing of the wheat, and conveying it to the barn, to 

 receive an abundant harvest. But if the flowering is 

 important to success, the time of cutting is not less s", 

 and up to the present period we have thought liltle 

 of it. 



Let us endeavour therefore to lay down some rules 

 essential to this great question. 



Tlie monthr. of May and June, 1856, were cold and 

 very wet. They favoured the development of the 

 hfrbage of the wheat, but retarded the fructification. 

 The earing, which commonly in our department comes 

 on from the 5th to the lOlh of June, did not t;ike place 

 till towards the 20th of that month. Tlie flowering 



lingered, and was not perfectly accomplished on the 30th, 

 from which resulted a prejudicial delay, and the farm- 

 ers supposed that it was consequently necessary to put 

 off the harvest. But the month of July, with the ex- 

 ception of a few days of rain towards the lOth, wag 

 very favourable to the vegetation of wheat ; the grain 

 cpiickly formed, and had taken its full development 

 towards the 30ih, except that it was still tender and 

 milky. To complete slowly its maturation it required 

 shade and a mild temperature, which it would have 

 found in the shocks ; but instead of that, by leaving it 

 standing, it was found exposed during the seven or eight 

 first days of August, to an ardent sun (the thermometer 

 in the shade standing at 32 degrees), the straw was 

 rapidly bleached, the ascension of the sap was arretted, 

 and the grain was dried as if in a stove, becoming 

 thereby thin and shrunk. 



In order that the grain may attain its normal size it 

 is iiroper to shelter the stalks from a too-drying action 

 of the sun, and to secure them early, and for fifreen or 

 twenty days in the shocks. We know that the matura- 

 tion is thus perfectly completed and much better than 

 in the free air. Gardeners who bestow so much trouble 

 upon their seed plants never fail to cut them when they 

 are slill green. They then tie them in small bimches, 

 standing upright, sheltered with a cap or covering at the 

 top, affording thus to the seeds, time to complete their 

 formation, 



A cultivator in the neighbourhood of Melz had a field 

 of wheat some years ago wholly beaten down ; and 

 wishing to save it from rotting, and preserve it at least 

 for forage, he caused it to be cut quite green, and set it 

 in shocks, which remained in the fields till after the 

 harvest. He was agreeably surprised to find the wheat- 

 ears formed and well filled, and, on thrashing, the grain 

 was handsome and heavy. 



The farmers would therefore i:ave done well to cut 

 their wheat from the end of July, and to place the 

 sheaves in shocks in the middle of the fields, protecting 

 them at the same time from the too great heat of the 

 first days of August. This was indispensable, especi- 

 ally with those which were the most retarded. I have 

 seen a very large field of wheat of the finest appearance, 

 lost for want of this precaution, yielding only thin 

 wrinkled grain, light and worthless. 



But it is very difficult to alter the habits of husband- 

 men, and make them comprehend the utility of an early 

 reaping of wheat : they are fearful of harvesting light, 

 and a less quantity, of grain, which is a great error. As 

 soon as, the stalk below the first knot and above the last, 

 turns white, it is time to reap the wheat and to protect 



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